ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


F ebru ary  1983 /  35

Bibliographic Instruction

Instructing Patrons in OCLC 
in an Academic Library

E d it o r ’s N o te: This rep ort is b a se d  on a  p rese n ta ­
tion a t th e 1982 A nnual C o n fe r e n c e o f  th e Illinois 
L ib ra r y  A ssociation.

Because of its early emphasis on cataloging, 
O C L C  remained out of the patron’s reach until the 
mid-1970s. But as the database grew larger and 
more reliable, patron service implications grew 
along with it.

The importance of O C L C  in locating material 
was obvious for interlibrary loan applications even 
before that subsystem was implemented in 1979. 
Several years earlier. O C L C  public access termi­
nals had been made available on a trial basis at a 
number of institutions. Because automated circu­
lation systems had been in existence since the 1960s 
and various public access terminals were already in 
use, O C L C  terminals often were installed in envi­
ronments where patrons were accustomed to com­
puter terminals.

At institutions in Illinois using the Library Com­
puter System (LC S). patrons can use terminals to 
check holdings and their availability in local collec­
tions. They may also check other collections to 
which they have access. If at this point their needs 
are still unsatisfied, they are then ready to use 
O C L C  to search for other locations.

Training patrons to use O C L C  has several obvi­
ous advantages. It increases their awareness of the 
library’s resource-sharing services: it introduces 
them to an important bibliographic tool; and it en­
courages them to provide citations for interlibrary 
loan that are complete and accurate.

To be most effective any instructional program 
should be accompanied by appropriate publicity, 
printed instructions, and a program evaluation. 
Announcem ents of the tra in in g  can be made 
through campus publications or mailings and 
posted in the library on O C L C  terminals, on public 
access terminals for the local circulation system, 
and at the site of the N ation al Union C a ta lo g  vol­
umes.

Printed instructions of varying complexity can 
be provided at the terminal itself. At the most de­
tailed level, O C L C  publications such as S earchin g 
th e O n -L in e Union C a ta lo g  and “O C L C  Partici­
pating Institutions— Arranged by O C L C  Symbol” 
are particularly helpful. For most patrons, brief in­
structions that can be carried away are more prac­
tical. At the University of Illinois at Chicago, for 
example, a one-page, legal-sized sheet, “Using the 
O C L C  C atalog,” has been developed. It shows the

keyboard and screen with annotations; how to 
search by author, title, and author/title; how to 
find locations; and brief information about the 
O C L C  database. A supply is kept next to the termi­
nal.

For patrons who have learned to use the system, 
brief prompts are all that is necessary. These can be 
scotch-taped directly onto the terminal. They need 
to show the number of characters and commas re­
quired for formulating the search codes. It is also 
helpful to include O C L C  symbols of other libraries 
used by your patrons. If they have reciprocal bor­
rowing privileges, they may go directly to the hold­
ing library.

Although truly online instructions are not avail­
able, O C L C  does have some prompts in its dis­
plays. There is also a test record, O C L C  #2865895, 
which describes the various fields of the OCLC/ 
MARC format.

T he instructional program most effectiv e is 
point-of-use instruction; formal demonstrations 
out of context are in general not remembered by 
patrons. At U IC , instruction is scheduled for two 
hours a day for two weeks each quarter. Dates and 
times were chosen to coincide with a similar but 
more extensive program for the Library Computer 
Sy stem . L C S  d em o n strators re fe r p atro n s to 
O C L C  as a logical extension beyond LCS. Demon­
strations for both programs are given by volunteers 
from all departments in the library. Assistance is 
always available and individual appointments can 
also be arranged outside the scheduled instruction 
times.

Although there has been no written evaluation 
solicited from our patrons, their verbal comments 
are always positive. On the basis of these comments 
and an increase in patron use, the program and the 
prin ted  in s tru ctio n s hav e been jud ged  
successful.— R o b e rt A. D au gherty. ■ ■

R o bert A. D au gherty is circu lation  librarian  at the 
University o f  Illin ois at C h icag o .